Amazon Kindle Fire to become more accessible for visually impaired

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Amazon has announced that “Voice Guide” and “Explore by Touch”, found on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, will be making there way to the two other Kindle tablets in the company's range, to help visually impaired customers get around the menus easily.

Voice Guide, once turned on, will allow users to have any action performed on the device read aloud.

For example, when a book is launched from the library, the system will announce the book title and that it has been opened, saying, “The Hunger Games. Book opened," Amazon explains.

Explore by Touch allows customers to swipe their finger across the touchscreen and, as they touch an item, the system announces what has been tapped - eg, when touching a book in the library the title is called out loud. A second tap on the book will open it.

“We plan to deliver additional accessibility features, so that our vision-impaired customers can have a better experience for reading, communicating and consuming media,” said Dave Limp, vice-president at Amazon Kindle, of the news.

Amazon says the new features will be made available on the standard definition Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD 7-inch models early next year.